Season 13, Episode 1: Unity
S13, E1, Act 1: Desperate Respite Commander Kyril Vree and Lt. Commander Kindred Dakota USS Nightwraith enroute to DS9 Cargo Bay Stardate 1810.16 A day after they parted ways with the Intruder and the Soulseeker, the four of them took turns manning the bridge while the others got some down time. The Nightwraith was big enough to house 20 people, so for just the four of them, it was plenty of room for them to have some privacy. Kin took advantage of that and practiced in the cargo bay. She'd been going through her routines with her axes, allowing her mind to enter the zen state of concentration and focus. Then before she was consciously aware of it, she was in the zone. That mental state of conditioning, practice, and focus on the fluidity and accuracy of her movements. She imagined attacking foes as she ran through her routines again and again, each time the foe attacking with different aspects of weapons or styles. Then she imagined hearing a noise behind her and whirled around bringing down both axes in a parallel downward cross motion to take the opponent by surprise. To her surprise, it connected with something with a clang, and that there was someone standing there. She leaped backwards and lowered her axes. "Spirits! I could have killed you! Don't sneak up on me like that." Ky lowered both of his katanas and shrugged. "I just walked in and was going to ask to join you. I didn't know I didn't need to ask." He smiled and brought up his twin katanas. "Come on, let's go then." They started sparring for a few minutes until both fighters fell into their own mental zones. Each one attacking and defending, pushing each other's boundaries harder and harder. Kin's mind went to a place she hadn't been for a long time. It was a box that she placed all her anger, frustrations, and disappointments into. She cracked open the lid and memories of situations and moments started pouring into her emotions. Her father's disappointment with her for staying on Earth to go to Starfleet Academy. His distaste at her frequent trips to Trill and choice of friends. His asking her to rescue her brother then turning his back on her after she did. His stubborn refusal to take a simple treatment to cure his heart disease. Kin's parries and attacks became more aggressive with each memory as she pushed each thrust and slice, trying to get to the ever elusive and invisible foe that was now released. Ky noticed the change in her fighting demeanor and kept up with her. He saw it in her eyes, the burning of hot emotions flared, making her moves cold and calculating. He was able to predict her moves and defended against them easily. Sometimes they would lock weapons and look into each other eyes, his mirrored her's as his concentration became more focused. Both knew they had reached a moment in their sparring and both decided to take it further. Both brought their best abilities forward, but Ky's well practiced moves and training frustrated her as she started to make little mistakes. Her emotions were starting to take over, and she became desperate and clumsy. Kin parried and then stepped back, but Ky pressed the attack quickly and his blades began to blur from the speed. She tried to riposte, but her axe was knocked away, and his sword slashed close to her abdomen. Stepping to one side, she swung her remaining axe down on the opposing side, but was blocked by his other sword. Just as the weapons connected with another loud clang, his other sword was already poised at her neck, and they both froze. Kin had a moment of fear when she looked into his eyes and saw the killer instinct he hadn't displayed in a long time. His sword was rock solid, and the blade touching her neck. His reflexes hadn't atrophied at all; he was still very fast. "I yield," she said with a heavy breath. Ky took a step back and took a breath while lowering his swords. He wasn't even breathing hard. "You alright?" "Yes," Kin said, bending over to retrieve her axes. "I read your report," Kin said, steering the subject. "You didn't tell us you had to kill two Naausican's when you picked up Tal'Aura." "What is there to tell?" He said, sheathing his own swords in their scabbards strapped on his back. "We should have mapped that lab before we left." She slowed her breathing and sat on the floor, closing her eyes. She could hear Ky sitting with her in front of her. "Do you want me to go to Dorvan V with you?" he finally asked. "I'm a grown-up, Ky. I'm not 16 anymore." She assumed a meditative position and ran through a breathing exercise to still her heart and lungs. After a moment she continued, "But I would be lying to you if I said that I was looking forward to it. The old man is something that I've put off dealing with for a long, long time." Ky's eyes were also closed, but his voice came soft and meditative. "Sometimes the things we have to do for family are the hardest things to do, and to understand. I heard once that one of the most difficult things to do as a child is to love and understand their parents in their old age. Maybe, just maybe, your father wants an opportunity to be with you alone so he can explain his perspective to you. You don't have to understand it, all you have to do is remember he is family and has done what he thinks is right." She harrumped. "He and Dez made sure that I would finally face him." "He is your father, not a villain. You have a child now; you know the love of a parent can be overwhelming at times. You can make rash decisions thinking of their health and safety." Ky said patiently, opening his eyes to study her now mature face. "Wouldn't you want a chance to fix what either of you may perceive as being broken?" "What he perceives? Colored by his own wants and desires?" Kin opened her eyes and found her friend sitting across from her like they had done many, many times in the last few years. The killer behind his eyes was hidden once again. "He never wanted me to join Starfleet. He was mad when I didn't stay to fight for Dorvan during the war. He told me to never return. He turned his back on me, and now, he's holding me hostage until I show up on DS9." "Old baggage needs to be left behind. We are here, now, let this be the chance to change things. Whether he forgives you or you forgive him for all that's happened, don't let that forge the relationship you will have with him for the rest of your lives." He added, "You know, you could start with making amends in your mind by calling him Father. You've been referring to him as 'he' or 'old man' the whole time." Anger flared in her eyes again, "Natane Dakota is not a father. He doesn't deserve that kind of respect." "Father is only a title, whether you believe in it or not. And he is your one and only father. Unless you want to take a trip back to the Mirror Universe and find their version of Natane Dakota, look at what Zac already has to live with. Count him lucky to have 'another' set of parents who love him just as much as his own did. But that is now. Say, hypothetically, Zac grows up and joins Starfleet." "Given his family and upbringing, he probably will." she admitted. "Now, imagine him embracing the ideals of Sarkonis III, and joins the Confederation, abandoning Starfleet's cause. What would you do then? Would you react the same way as Natane, or take a different path?" Kin stayed silent for a moment. Ky always had a way of hinting at the future without saying it outright, but would Zac truly turn against a philosophy he had been raised to honor all of his life? Is this what she had done in her father's eyes? She had been raised to respect her Native American roots, but ultimately, like her mother, she had chosen to be a Federation citizen with a more global idea of society and culture. She was that way from a young age; her father was well aware that she was more like her mother than himself. "I don't know what I'd do." She pushed back the wisps of hair that had fallen from her braid. "I hate when you have a valid point when I'm angry. I'll think about what you said." She stood in a smooth movement honed from calisthenics. Kin embraced Ky as he joined her. "I know I can always count on you." "That's what family is for." Invidious In orbit above planet Rift Stardate 1810.21 Captain Algo stood on the bridge in front of the deployment table that projected a floating three dimensional scan of what was left of the underground lab. Rift City was in black out ever since the destruction of a field emitter station that fed the dampening field generator the day before. "Someone destroyed the generator, then assaulted the lab and vaporized everything inside with a large amount of high yield explosives." Her 2IC said, studying the sensor readings and residue of what was left. They had beamed up samples of the ash to analyze. "Where are the logs for the day that are duplicated on a regular basis?" He shook his full mane of hair on his head. "Unfortunately, the backup hadn't been processed yet for the day. We have no records, no visual logs, nothing of that day." "Bring up the logs from the day before, I want to see what they were working on and how far the project had come along." The man shook his head again. "The doctors were very secretive, they did not allow their research to be backed up or duplicated anywhere offsite. This Dr. Moses Casing, his profile indicates he was borderline paranoid schizophrenic, as the humans called it. He had refused treatment for it because he felt it would interfere with how he perceived his work. So he kept a firm grasp of his experiment results." "So you are basically telling me the entire project is lost," she said with a slight growl. This won't make her bosses very happy. "Yes, Captain." "Did we also lose our contact in the base?" "That we didn't lose. As soon as we announced our arrival, he contacted us. He is waiting for extraction." "Who is it?" "The Talarian, Fauest Agar." "Beam him directly to here. I would like to speak with him." The humanoid Talarian appeared on the Bridge in a brown vest worn over a dingy grey blue jumpsuit. His gloved hands gripped the sack he had looped over one shoulder. The ridges on this cranium looked like an ornamental crown if it wasn't the same color as his flesh. "I am Captain Algo. You are on board the Invidious. The entire lab has been vaporized. How is it that you survived?" She asked, straight to the point. The tone of voice and directness did not faze the man. In fact, he responded likewise. "Vaporized?" he said with a slight higher tone of voice. "I didn't know it was that severe. I was out running an errand for the doctors. They asked me to pick up some supplies from the night market." "So you didn't see anything out of the ordinary before you left the lab?" "Not in the lab. At the night market, I saw one of the experimental subjects walking through the center of the market and was apprehended by someone. The Naausican brothers followed them. I didn't think anything of it because they are usually very thorough and precise with their assignments. Until I found the two of them dead in an alley." "Grang and Joug are dead?" She said with a slight shock in her voice. Those two were among the most dangerous Naausicans in the Consortium's arsenal of deadly hires. "Did you see what did this man look like?" "Not his face. He was cloaked, twin swords on his back, and hooded. I don't even know what species he was, but he was humanoid." "Describe to me the brothers' wounds," she asked carefully. "Grang's arm was severed at the elbow, and his head was hanging half off his body. Joug had a large stab wound in the middle of his chest, and his head was fully severed from his body. Both bodies were stripped of all equipment and armor." Algo nodded and made note of it. "The Board won't be happy to hear this news of the lab. If you saw this cloaked figure again, would you recognize him?" The Talarian shrugged. "There are a lot of cloaked people on Rift. But the twin swords strapped on his back would make him stand out a bit." "Why didn't you return to the lab immediately after you discovered the brothers?" "The lab already knew. They had visual drones follow each experimental subject. There was no need for me to report it. And they usually don't like anyone interfering with their experiments." "Tell me what happened after you found the bodies." "A few hours later after I was done with my errands, there was a large tremor in the ground. I didn't think anything of it as the ground is always moving on Rift because of the magma flows. When I contacted the lab for entry, I received no response. I also hailed them on an open frequency and no one responded. I waited for hours, occasionally hailed them again hoping maybe their comm system was in repair. But nothing. I found billeting for the day and every few hours, I would return to the entry point and hail them again. I never received a response. Then it was announced that you had arrived and I contacted you." Algo leaned forward on the table. It was a long shot, but she had to take the chance. "I want you to go back to where the brothers were killed and try to find that person who killed them. It may lead to the assault on the lab. Contact me when you've found something." Commander Kyril Vree Starbase Deep Space Nine Stardate 1810.21 Ky was the first one waiting at the airlock as the atmosphere in between the Nightwraith and the station equalized. It was going to feel strange stepping foot onto DS9. He had lived on Terok Nor for over a year and to come on to the same station in their Prime universe was a strange sensation of déjà vu; but not really. Bryce sauntered up behind him in his civilian attire. "Been a while since we've been here, neh?" he said, accidentally letting a Linea vernacular slip out. "Longer for me," Ky said. "My doppelganger was here at the end of the war. The last time 'I' was here, I assaulted that Romulan senator on that Dreadnought mission." Dakota had just joined them and over heard the last comment. "Are you serious? When did this happen?" “The mission we did right before you joined us,” Ky said with a bit of anger in his tone. He still remembered it as if it was yesterday. Not only that the Romulans had betrayed Bravo Squad, a former member of Bravo Squad also did the same on that mission. "He deserved it," Bryce added. "He had an ulterior agenda and lied straight to our face." "Deserved or not, Admiral Ross doesn't like us being here. And Tom and Jerry did start a fight with some Klingons at Quark's and wrecked the place." When the docking collar opened, they were surprised to see someone there waiting for them. Someone they've met before, but not someone Ky was too fond of. But Bryce beat him to the salutations. "Ro Laren! How wonderful it is to see you again!" Bryce surprisingly leapt forward to give her a brisk hug. "I see you're still not with Starfleet," he said still holding on to her arms and making note of the Bajoran lieutenant's militia insignia on the blue uniform she was wearing."But now the station's chief security officer?" Lieutenant Ro Laren received the hug emotionlessly and stepped back from him when he finally let go. "I can't believe I have to put up with my babysitter again." She said with a stern face. Apparently, she didn't seem happy to see them either, directing this towards Ky. "Commander," she said coolly. "Lieutenant." Ky responded in a similar tone. Dakota, and now Reece who had joined them, saw the two differing exchanges of salutations. "These are my other officers, Lt. Commander Kindred Dakota, and Lieutenant Antonia Reece," Ky rattled off in a monotone. "Welcome to DS9. Captain Kira is expecting you. Not you specifically, but someone from your organization. Please follow me." She turned around as if to lead the way, then she stopped and turned around. "Please don't bring any weapons onto my station." Ky shook his head. "We know the drill, Lieutenant." Bravo Squad followed Ro out of the docking ring. Dakota whispered into her subvoc. “What was that all about? Another betrayal?” The Trill commander nearly smiled. She really knew them. “You got that right. She lied to us too, on a different mission.” Within moments, they reached the Promenade. It was the main hub of the station with shops and restaurants of all sorts; just what a weary traveler needed on long haul trips. Ky gestured for Dakota to be on her way to see her father and that he would contact her later. She gave him a nod and headed for the Infirmary. When they walked off the lift in to Ops, he paused for a minute to take in the station's heart. It looked so different from the one in the Mirror Universe, more polished and clean with working consoles. He briefly glanced at the lone transporter pad that just by itself triggered so many memories. It was the transporter pad that Ezri Dax had appeared on all bloodied and covered with Kira's remains. He shook away the memories and reminded himself that that hasn't happened, and hoped it never would. He looked towards the office of the commanding officer and couldn't help but smile. He himself hadn't seen Kira since Bravo Squad's second visit to DS9 nearly eight years ago. But, his clone, the one who replaced him at the War's end, met up with Kira when he was found wandering in a field after the war ended that day on Cardassia Prime. Ky had only read what his clone said about that day, and he would have to play off that if the subject ever came up. Kira was a Colonel at the time. Now she was a captain ever since Bajor joined the Federation. They had kept in touch since then over subspace and messages to each other. Ro chimed the door and when it opened, the first person Kira saw was the trill commander. "Ky?! What are you doing here?" She exclaimed louder than she meant. "You didn't tell me you were coming." The trio walked in, leaving Ro outside to close the door. Ky waited for the door to close all the way before speaking. "You had made a request to Starfleet for an away team to assist you on a mission. Bravo Squad reporting for duty, Captain." Kira sat there with her mouth open. "I was informed they were sending someone, but I didn't know they were sending you." She got up from her desk and embraced him in a long hug and whispered into his ear. "Still with Starfleet Intelligence, I see." He patted her on the back and whispered in return. "It's so good to see you too, Nerys." After he introduced Bryce and Reece, she turned her attention to the Draconian. "Mr. Bryce, welcome back. Do me a favor and pay Quark a visit. I want the Prophets scared out of that Ferengi for a while. Even the mention of your name still makes his arm ache." She turned to Ky and gave him a smile. "It was fun to see him squirm a bit when your wife and daughter were here last month. They made a deal with Quark that surpassed even a Ferengi." Bryce gave her a polite bow. "I will attempt to put the Fear of Bravo Squad into him, Captain." Kira gave him a nod of thanks. "Ky can I speak with you privately first about what I want you to do here?" She looked to Bryce and Reece. "Please don't take offense; I want to brainstorm a little with your commander." Ky gave both of them a nod. "Go to the Promenade and have some dinner while you're at it. We'll meet up again in the morning. And DON'T get into any trouble." Both Bravo Squad members gave him an informal salute and left the office. Kira ordered a raktajino and a jumja juice from the replicator and gestured to the couch along one wall of her office. Ky sat down as she placed the drinks on the table in front of him. "By the Prophets, it's been so long since we've seen each other face to face," she said, sitting down next to him and held his hands. There was nothing romantic about the act. There was a deep mutual gratitude and respect between the two that had grown over the years that transcended any romantic relationship. This was a side of Kira most people rarely see. "Since the end of the War; seven years." "Seven years already," she said slightly wistfully. Times had been rough in those seven years for her. For some reason, she felt comfortable with him. Either maybe because she missed the companionship of a mature joined Trill, or the vast wisdom a joined Trill could have. She missed Jadzia terribly. "Tell me what you need us for, and my team and I will help any way we can. We've been ordered to be at your disposal." "Thank you for coming." Kira got up and pulled padd out from her desk drawer. "But I need to address something else first. As you know, we make regular sensor sweeps for Mirror space-time signatures on the station. About 10 days ago, we detected someone with that signature had come on board the station. He came on board with Commander Dezin Traela and two others. Traela claims he is waiting for Lieutenant Commander Kindred Dakota to arrive." Ky frowned. The one place in this universe for Zac to be discovered at, and he had to come to DS9. "I contacted his CO, an Admiral Jaegar, who assured me that a six year old boy is no threat to our existence and continuity in this universe. And Commander Traela also mentioned I can also discuss the issue with you." "The Admiral is correct; Zac is no threat at all. And I can promise you no one like him exists, or will ever exist, in our universe," Ky said, carefully wording his comment. "But you can see the danger he poses on disrupting the two timestreams. If they were to ever come too close together due to his quantum signature pulling on that universe close to ours..." Kira said with a slightly worried, but authoritative voice. The trill could see where this was headed. Federation laws concerning security in their prime universe were created after the discovery of the Mirror Universe 126 years ago by the USS Discovery. Any incursion to their prime universe had to be seriously dealt with. But the technology to detect them took a long time to develop. She and Captain Sisko were the two who came up with the revised regulations regarding Mirror Universe displaced persons. And with the help of Smiley O'Brien and their own Chief O'Brien, they developed the sensor array that was installed on the station. But even after he spent a few years on the other side, he had yet to have seen or noticed any disruption to either timestream. He had hoped this conversation would never happen, but he resigned himself to now having to make a decision as to how much to tell Kira. "Let's have some dinner brought in. I have a story to tell you." Lt. Commander Kindred Dakota Deep Space Nine Infirmary Stardate 1810.21 Kindred quickly walked into the infirmary in a swirl of skirt the deep color of a red garnet. She hadn't been in civies for a while, and she'd chosen something that appealed to her current mood. The bodice was figure hugging, but the skirts were layered chiffon that twirled and swayed with every move of her body. With her current speed through the throng on the Promenade towards her destination, she looked like she had taken flight. "Just the man I was looking for." she said when she finally found Doctor Bashir sitting in his office. "My, my, my. If it isn't Kindred Dakota!" He waved her into his office as he came around the desk to embrace her. "It's been too long since your last trip here." She nodded. Her transfer to Bravo Squad was the last time she had set foot on the station. Her time at Terok Nor in the Mirror Universe didn't count. It may have looked the same, but it was populated with a whole different group of people. "I'm glad to see you in good spirits even though you are dealing with my father." She remembered to use the term though she did hesitate before saying it. "I've had difficult patients before, but he ranks right up there." Bashir sat on the corner of his desk and pointed to the seat in front ofhim. "I've been trying for over a week to convince him that the treatment is sound, practiced medicine. There's no need for him to be ill or possibly die. Simply, no need a'tall." "He's stubborn, and he lives a very holistic lifestyle. It took a lot of convincing just to get him off world and to DS9." "I heard the little man was helpful in that regard." He crossed his arms and smiled. "A husband and a child. How life has changed for you!" "I do enjoy the family life. It is a difficult balance between Starfleet duties and them, but I've made the time. And now I've made some time to be with the rest of the family. I'm on leave until I can see to his treatment." "Well, once he takes the treatment, he'll be down for about two weeks recovering. In six months, he'll never knew he was ill. Three injections and he is cured." Bashir turned to take in the monitor on his desk. It was time for the Dakota's to come in for their daily argument. "They'll be here soon." "And won't Natane be surprised." she murmured. Commander Dezin Traela Deep Space Nine, Promenade Stardate 1810.28 She was here. Finally. It had been a rough week, but she was finally here. Kindred Dakota leaned against doorway with her arms crossed and her foot tapping a steady beat. She was angry which meant she'd been waiting for at least the hour it had taken for him to convince her father to make his way to the Infirmary. He watched as his six year old son barreled into her body knocking her slightly off her feet. At least, she was relaxed. Her years of training would have absorbed the movement had she been on edge. Then again, she never let on to their son how vast her training had been. Zac clung onto her with the love only a child could produce, and Dez saw his lips go a mile a minute as he filled her in on what was going on. "She's beautiful." a low voice said beside him. "She looks so much like her mother, Spirits bless her soul." Natane Dakota stopped beside him. Ahoté and his father had trailed behind him as the little progression had made its daily trek to Bashir's office. "And she grows more beautiful every day." She looked up then and caught his eye. His heart faltered for just a moment. She did that to him. "Truly the sentiment of a man in love." Ahoté clasped his brother-in-law by the shoulder, and Dez gave an infrequent but heartfelt smile. "Shall we go to her or just stare at her for a while? How long has it been since you held your wife?" "It's been a few weeks. The travel time to and back from the pulsar study and the study itself. Life on board a station is much different than life aboard ship. You don't see each other as often, but it's more stable and safe for Zac." They made their way down the Promenade to her. She was still hugging Zac and had just placed a soft kiss on the top of his head. "I was wondering when you all would finally get here. Lazing away the day, Dez?" She had opened her arms to him, and he slipped right in. Their fit was perfect as their bodies aligned for a perfunctory hello kiss. So, she was still a little angry at him for his role in getting her to DS9, but then she hugged him tightly to her so maybe she wasn't so angry. "Ahoté, Father." she said by way of greeting as the two men finally made their way to the entrance. "Sister! It has been too long." Ahoté opened his arms, and she reluctantly met him in a hug. "Brother. I'm so glad to see you looking well." Natane held out his hand to her, and she clasped his forearm in the ancient greeting, then he also pulled her into his arms for an awkward hug. "Daughter," he said a little choked up. "Father." Kindred stepped back quickly and waved her hand towards the interior of the Infirmary. "You're late for your appointment, but I'm assured that Dr. Bashir still has time for you. Let's go see what he has to say about your condition and treatment." Begrudgingly, the older man took the arm she offered and went inside. Commander Kyril Vree Captain Kira Nerys' office, Deep Space Nine Stardate 1810.28 Ky and Kira talked all through the beta and gamma shifts. It took a long time for Kira to tell him what's been going on with her, the station, and Bajor since joining the Federation. There was a camaraderie between them even though they never fought side by side before. Her finding him on Cardassia Prime at the war's end bonded them somehow. Although he himself wasn't actually there, something had happened between Kira and his doppelganger that brought them close, and continued the friendship over the years through messages. Throughout the gamma shift, Ky could tell in her eyes behind the banter and the lines etched on her face, of the stresses and hardships she'd been through since the end of the War seven years ago. He saw it, and she knew he saw it. The messages they'd been sending each other over those years only gave him a hint at what she'd been through. After a few long discussions, he got a sense of what's been happening on Bajor and her relationship with her home planet. "Do you remember me telling you about five years ago that the Cardassians returned all the orbs they had seized during Bajor's occupation? You won't believe the number of temples that popped up overnight all over Bajor. It became difficult to all of a sudden decide where to place them on a permanent basis. The Vedek Assembly drafted a list of locations around Bajor to place the orbs and submitted it to the Bajoran Council. After the locations were decided, new monasteries were built to house each orb, designed for worshippers to come and consult with the monks and maybe even visitations with the orb itself.” “It must have also been a time of celebration to finally have all the orbs back on Bajor.” Ky took a sip from his cup of some type of carbonated liquid he’d never had before. Kira had told him it was from a newly developed fruit on Bajor. "The Orb of Unity was stolen,” she came right out and said. Then she paused for a moment. Ky could see how much it affected her. As a religious person and in command of the station, the responsibility befell upon her to resolve the issue. “It was housed in the Nikaran Monastery on the Eastern Province.” Ky nodded with instant understanding in where this was all headed and the reason they were here. Bajor, nor Deep Space Nine, had the resources to perform a covert operation of this caliber. “Fortunately for us, it was Ha'mara, the Bajoran holiday celebrating the anniversary of the arrival of the Emissary. During the celebration, the shrine was closed for consultations or visitations, and we discovered it missing. We fashioned a holoprojection of the orb before the shrine opened the next day. But have still closed it for private visitations. That was three weeks ago.” “Do you know who took it?” “Yes, we do. Someone inside the monastery helped them with the theft and we interrogated him. It was the Cardassian order, the True Way. Ever since the end of the war the True Way started to re-emerge. They want the Federation out of Cardassian space to allow them to return to the old Cardassian government. They don't want the assistance of the Federation anymore. They feel after they were betrayed by the Dominion during those last weeks of the war, they no longer want to be pawns of any empire. They stole the orb in hopes to force Bajor to secede from the Federation, allowing them to perhaps take over this sector.” Kira shook her head. “It would be the Occupation all over again. And I cannot, will not, let that happen again.” “So you want us to find the orb and return it to the monastery.” “Yes, and I want you to destroy that cell of the True Way.” Ky hesitated. The resistance fighter in Kira emerged, the cold hearted warrior fighting for the freedom of her people and planet. “Are you sure? What if some of the cell members are bajoran? There is no turning back after something like-” “They are a terrorist organization, and should be dealt with appropriately,” she said with an edge to her voice. Then the lines on her face softened. “We don’t want them to retaliate by doing something more drastic like going to another monastery and destroying an orb. Get the orb back, and wipe them out.” “What’s to stop the other cells from retaliating?” “The cells are compartmentalized. One cell doesn’t know what another cell is doing. If you eradicate that cell, no one may even know it even existed or what they had planned to do.” “Except for the bodies we leave behind.” “You’ll have to eliminate those too.” Kira gave him a hard look. “No signs of them are to remain.” “So you want us to ‘disappear’ their encampment too.” “That’s right.” “How big is this cell?” “From our orbital scans, they number about 40 of mixed races; most are Cardassians. They also may have hired a few mercenaries to help them too. We’re not entirely sure on that.” “Why haven’t they taken it off planet? If I were them, I'd take it straight back to Cardassia." Ky watched Kira carefully, trying to gauge how much emotion is fueling her decision to eradicate this True Way cell. She shook her head. "Our new defensive sensors surrounding the planet would have detected the unique energy signature if it did. And we would have dispatched every ship available to pursue it and bring it back. No, It's still on the planet, and we know where it is." She held up a padd and brought up a map of Bajor. She zoomed in on near the equator. "Rakantha Province. I need you and your team to go in there in stealth, recover the orb, and shut down that cell. They threatened to destroy the orb if any attempts were made to recover it. They have to know we know where they’re at. So I made the request to Starfleet for someone qualified to perform a mission like this. I don’t want to botch up the mission because I didn’t have qualified people performing the mission." "What does it take to destroy an orb?" “We believe only a Pah-wraith can destroy an orb. But they have been sealed in the Fire Caves ever since Captain Sisko sealed them there. The Caves have been well guarded every since. So we don’t know what the True Way has up their sleeves to destroy an orb.” Ky's mind was in a whirl. Everyone has read the reports of what happened at Deep Space Nine near the end of Benjamin Sisko's term. It was one of those stories that were told and embellished about the now famous Captain who became the Emissary of the Prophets, destined to find the Celestial Temple, which was the Bajoran Wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant. “Alright then. What's the closest settlement? Can we deploy from there?” “It’s over a hundred kilometers away. The area is still poisoned during the Cardassian Occupation. Even the soil reclamators we sent there are taking a long time detoxifying it enough to grow crops. You can take a shuttle to the settlement, but you’ll have to make the hundred kilometer trek through desolate and poisoned land of all rock, dirt, and gravel. They’ll also see you coming if they have any sentries posted.” Ky was already making plans. With their subspace translocation suits, they can make the hundred kilometers in due time. It might be tiring to do that many translocations, but it looks like it may be the only way. Any use of a transporter beam may tip their approach.” “I’ll need a scan of the entire area in different spectrums. I need to be able to see what we’re going into.” In his mind, this will also allow them to map exact location coordinates to translocate. “I can give you all of that,” Kira said, giving out a breath of released tension she’d been holding on to for weeks. “Can you really do it?” “Well, we’ll certainly try. Is there a contact you can trust at the monastery we can bring the orb to since we can’t beam it off the surface without alerting anyone?” Kira handed him a padd with a profile on it. “Kohi Bokan. He’s the ranking mylar monk at the monastery. He was the one who contacted me. Any equipment you need, I’ll get it for you.” “We’ll need something to hold the orb in that will mask its energy signature. Maybe we can beam it site to site rather than beam it off the planet. If we can get a small ship with a transporter below the orbit of the sensor net, maybe we can beam directly to the monastery instead of trekking it over land.” “I can lend you a runabout, but having a runabout hover in the atmosphere for an indefinite amount of time is suspicious.” Kira started tapping on her padd, making a requisition for an available runabout. And sending a message to Lieutenant Ro. “Agreed. Then maybe you can have the runabout in orbit and upon our signal, bring it into the atmosphere and beam us out. I think that will work.” Ky's mind worked like clockwork, rattling off equipment they may need. “I’ll have Ro man the runabout Zhu Jiang,” Kira said, and then saw a look on his face. “What’s wrong? You don’t like Lieutenant Ro?” “Let’s just say our paths have crossed before and the meeting was not too...amiable.” “I want to minimize the number of people privy to the missing orb, and Ro is one of them.” Ky held up a hand. “We’ll use Ro. I’ll deal with my own problems with her. No need to involve you, let alone a mission of this magnitude. You already have enough on your plate.” Kira just gave him a nod of respect. This was the first time she had to rely on him on a professional level. But from what she had heard through the Starfleet grapevine from Admirals Ross and Mancuso, this particular team was highly trained and skilled. But knowing Ky as she did, she knows he will try his best to help her. And that was already enough for her to be grateful that Kyril Vree was someone she called her friend. Commander Kyril Vree Deep Space Nine Stardate 1811.01 It was close to the end of the gamma shift, and Ky had spent most of the night talking with Kira going over the final details of the mission. The conversations were sprinkled with other topics about life, work, and alot about her relationship with Bajor now that she was the CO of a Federation outpost. The discussions could have gone longer if they weren’t interrupted by a hail from Lieutenant Ro, requesting for Ky to report to the Infirmary. Deciding to finish up their meeting, they gave each other a hug before parting and Ky headed through the quiet station and to the Promenade. Reaching the Infirmary, he did not expect, nor wanted to see what he saw. Lieutenant Ro was there with Bryce, along with Reece, and a ferengi. Quark. Ky stopped and looked at the trio and shook his head. “What are you doing in here?” Quark was sitting on a biobed, pointed at Bryce with a finger and whined. “He started it!” Bryce held up his hands. “All I asked was for a terran root beer drink.” “Which you spilled on one of my best customers,” Quark rebuked. “Who tried to avoid it and tripped and fell on Quark,” Bryce said. Then with a smirk, “and fractured his other arm.” Quark let out another wail as a nurse tried to position his arm to allow the osteogenic stimulator to mend the fracture. Ky ignored the ferengi and walked over to Bryce and Reece, noticing some wounds of their own. “Then what are these?” Ky pointed to a gash on Bryce’s head, and one on Reece’s cheek. Bryce just waved him off while Reece looked on. “Oh this? Tis’nothing. Slipped on the spilt root beer, banged my head on the bar. Tried to grab Reece for support and took her down with me. Right, Toni?” Reece gave Ky a frown and nodded silently. Ky didn’t believe a single word of it. But because the station’s security chief was present, he didn’t press the matter and let them stick to that story. He looked over to Ro as she stood by Quark. “Is that what happened, Quark?” she asked, keeping an eye on Bryce. “I, uh, don’t quite remember, Lieutenant.” He said carefully. “You don’t remember?” Ro asked in a voice full of suspect. “He doesn’t remember because he was too busy screaming and wailing on the floor,” Bryce said with a laugh. Ky kept a tight lip to keep from laughing, which would be a bad move one way or another. Ro gestured with a tilt of her head to follow her to her office. Without another word, he followed obediently across the Promenade and closed the door to her office behind him. “Captain Kira has informed me of your mission. I am ordered to be at your disposal. I’m to take you to Bajor in a runabout and wait for your signal for a site to site transport of the orb upon your mission completion. Is that right?” Ro said stiffly. “And to bring us back here. Yes, Lieutenant. Are you going to have a problem with that? Working with us again?” Ky crossed his arms and stood there unmoving. “No, sir. Are YOU going to have a problem with that, working with me again?” Ro said just as emotionlessly as he. “Not unless you disobey my orders again.” He took a few steps towards her door and paused. “We’ll contact you on the Zhu Jiang in three hours to transport some of our equipment over from our ship. And make sure all the equipment I’ve requested from Kira is on board and checked.” He walked out without waiting for a response and headed towards the docking ring. He opened a subvoc channel to Bryce and Reece. “Get done in the Infirmary and meet me on the Nightwraith for mission briefing. We are to then gear up and deploy in three hours.” “Aye, on our way,” Bryce responded. Lt. Commander Kindred Dakota Commander Kyril Vree Infirmary, DS9 Stardate 1811.01 Kindred sat on the biobed with her feet dangling off the side. She needed a break. It had already been a long morning of cajoling her father out of their quarters and into the Infirmary. He was still refusing treatment. No matter what anyone said, he kept telling them no. It was frustrating. It was irritating. It was insulting. She heard someone enter the room and looked up to find Ky. He was still in his civilian attire and looked like he’d been up all night. The team was going on its first mission without her since she had to be rescued on Capella. It was an odd feeling. "Leaving soon?" she asked. "We leave in about 20." He hopped up onto the biobed opposite her. "How are things going?" She ran her hands over her face and tucked her long hair behind her ears. "He's more stubborn than I remembered. We have to cajole him into getting here, and then he argues with Bashir, and then he storms out. If he was waiting for me, then he would have agreed to the treatment by now. I don't know why I'm here." "I don't think that's what he's waiting for." She crossed her legs and arms. "If he's waiting for an apology, that will be a long time coming." "Maybe he's just waiting for a conversation. Have you talked to him alone?" "No. I can't bring myself to do it." “Maybe he just needs to talk with you alone. You can start with one of the wonders of the universe right outside this station,” he suggested subtly to the wormhole DS9 was guarding. “Oh, he’s seen it. Dez took him to see it with Zac. You know what he said? ‘What monstrosity created that ugly thing.’ she said, mimicking the elder Dakota’s voice. Ky laughed. “Then the holosuite it is. Just don’t rush him. Take your time. Something that’s been going on for this long won’t be resolved overnight. I think both of you need to build your relationship anew. You’re older now,” this got him a deathray look from her, ”and he’s older now. Age changes all of us.” “And the older he gets, the harder it is to reason with him.” “Or maybe both of you need to be away from this environment.” He gestured to the tin can they were in. “He’s probably not comfortable not being able to see the sky. Take him to a holosuite, use a program that won’t cause any painful memories, bring up an environment that relaxes both of you. Quark has my old copy of Jarran Falls if you want to use it.” Ky smiled. Kin sighed. “You’re eventually going to run out of ideas to help me, you know that?” “Dear Kin-der-kin,” Ky’s eyes laughed. “I still have centuries of ideas to help you with. Starting with making sure that husband of yours doesn’t let Zac run his days. I know he’s very cute, and I think he’s beginning to know how to use that to his advantage.” The thought of Zac always brought a smile to her face and warmth to her heart. Then she saw what his eyes were trying to tell her, and he gave her a nod. “You can remind him why he needs to live. Tell him he needs to live long enough to see Zac grow up. Tell him that YOU need him to see that wonderful little boy grow up. Despite the travesties he’s gone through before coming here, only a few of us know exactly how special that child is. One who can't exist in this universe, but here he is.” Ky’s chronometer chimed. It was time to go. He got off of the biobed and held Kin’s shoulders. “You take your time, find out what your heart and mind needs to do, and you do it. Trust your instincts without emotion, and you’ll find the answer there.” He returned her wry smile and kissed her forehead. “Good luck.” She squeezed his arms in appreciation and a surge of confidence and encouragement filled her with determination. He had armed her with volumes of knowledge and emotions she could try with her father. And at this moment, this would really be the first time in a long while Ky won’t be on hand to help her. She had to rely on herself to use whatever resources he has given her, and solve the problem herself. She was almost sad to see him go. “Good luck to you too.” Commander Kyril Vree Nightwraith, DS9 Stardate 1811.08 Bryce and Reece gave Ky a serious look. “Kill every last man?” Ky returned the look. “Kira was very adamant about it.” “Do you think that may have been a bit of an emotional decree?” Bryce asked. “I know Kira is very passionate about her people and the orbs, but to take out an entire cell-” Ky held up a hand to stop Bryce from continuing. “This sounds like the resistance fighter in Kira. When your planet is on the line, you will do any desperate thing to ensure its survival. And from her point of view, stealing an orb shakes the foundation of the Bajoran religion. And the Bajoran people are very religious.” Reece looked down at the scans of the camp from orbit. “We can’t just bombard them from orbit?” “No, it needs to be done covertly. Anything that directs attention to it will require an investigation. And she doesn’t want this news to get out.” Ky zoomed out to the surrounding rocky mountain area. “We’ll beam down individually,” he pointed to several points around the camp, about 27 kilometers out. He created several waypoints on the map. “These areas will be screened from any ground sensors they may have put out, and far enough away. We’ll use the suits to move in on them.” “At least they’re in a remote area,” Reece said, studying the area she would be transporting into. Bryce was also studying the camp and overhead imagery. “I don’t see any vehicles, or air transports. How do they get around?” Ky zoomed in and now saw it too. “Good catch. I don’t see any landing pads, nor any worn roads in or out of the camp.” He then zoomed back further, and brought up a electromagnetic scan of the wider area. “Ground transporters.” He saw the enhancers strategically placed throughout the area between the camp and the nearest settlement 100 kilometers away. He pointed them out for the team. “They’re using these transporter enhancers to transport to the settlement. It’s also a way to hide exactly where they’re coming from.” He zoomed out even farther, and saw more enhancers reaching another settlement nearly 400 kilometers away to the north. “That’s two points of travel. It must have taken them at least a month to get them all placed without anyone knowing. And they’re using a spectrum that’s widely used to mask their usage and locations.” “We’re going to have to contain them to prevent them from escaping once we make our move,” Reece said. Bryce numbered each enhancer. “What about taking out the enhancers at the outer rim and work our way in? That will close their escape perimeter.” As the number of enhancers stopped at 62, Ky brought up the technical specs for them. “Do we have any cardassian explosives on board?” Reece looked over to the compartment that held their explosive ordinance. “We have about 40kg of it, but most of it are in grenades. Ky pulled out a padd and started doing some calculations. “That gives us about half a kilogram of explosives for each enhancer. That should be enough. We attach a magnet to the charge, so we can just beam it close proximity to this area here on the enhancer,” he pointed to a small metal box protruding on the side of the enhancer. “The magnet should attach the explosive charge to it. Then once we get into position, we wait for nightfall, then blow them all in a chain reaction.” He explained to them. “Once the enhancers are down, we go in with our personal holographic imagers set to look like Cardassians and take everyone out.” Bryce and Reece looked over the camp again and the surrounding areas. “Sounds simple enough.” With experience, all three of them thought otherwise. Their missions were rarely ever that simple. "Gather the equipment we'll need, and I'll head over to the runabout to transport the equipment over," Ky ordered. "We leave immediately." Lt. Commander Kindred Dakota Deep Space Nine, Personal Quarters Stardate 1811.05 Another day had ended without her father taking the treatment. After her talk with Kyril, she had started to devise a plan, and with Bashir's help she was about to enact it. She passed the bowl of fry bread to her brother and accepted the dish of corn from Dezin. "After dinner, we should all go pack. We have an early morning tomorrow." "Oh?" her brother asked? "Well, since Father won't accept the treatments, I think it's time that we all returned to Dorvan. There's nothing to be done here." Kin passed on the dish and accepted the next as they sat family style around the dining room table. "Dez and I both have a week of leave due, and I think we'll spend them on Dorvan saying goodbye." "Goodbye?" Her father dropped the dish he was holding onto the table with a thud. "Without treatment, you know what will happen. Dr. Bashir has made the state of your condition painfully obvious. I think it's best that we return you home for your final days." She kept passing around the food until her plate was full. "I doubt we'll be able to stay until the end, but a week is better than nothing. Don't you agree, Dez?" He felt her tap out a rhythm on his right thigh. They had perfected a way of communicating in short hand using SO signals and language years ago. It was always better than a kick in the shin. "Yes, I think it is for the best. Staying here any longer is not worth the time." "Yea! I get to stay on a planet!" Zac said around a mouthful of food. "I've never done that before." "No, sun. No sky. No Mother Earth beneath his feet. Kindred, I'm disappointed in you. You are keeping the boy from his heritage." "We haven't been stationed planet-side since the adoption. We've been on stations or starships." Natane Dakota snorted at the notion of adoption. It was clear as the nose on his face that the boy was his daughter's. Just another lie to add to the pile his daughter had told him in the past day. Pulsar study. Five year scientific mission. He still had contacts in the Federation, and he knew in his heart that his daughter was not as she seemed. A scientist would not have such hard edges to her. "It will do you both good to return home." The room turned silent in a pregnant pause. Ahoté cleared his throat and spoke for the first time in several minutes. "Dezin, brother, I look forward to introducing you to the Spirits. Kindred tells me you are a Traditionalist Trill, and as such, you honor the old ways. We, too, honor the old ways. It will be a joy to show you and the boy our ways." The conversation drifted away to topics of home and the family Ahoté had left behind to come to Deep Space Nine. Kin sat silent listening to their chatter with half an ear. The first part of her mission plan was accomplished. S13, E1, Act 2: Differing Journeys To be continued... __FORCETOC__